A science fiction novel written by Phillip K. Dick with the title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep has thousands of lessons for its readers. The novel talks about the human nature. The story underlines several matters that people may face in their life which reflects on how human lives their life in the future. Starting from people’s dependency to the technologies, the influence of mass media, false religion, consumerism, less empathy, false identity, mind control, and many more. When I read the book, I noted that Deckard, the main character in the novel is living with the idea of consumerism whereby he has an envy feeling for the other people who can afford exotic animals. In the book, people use the real animal to greater their social acceptance. They buy fancy things even though they do not really need it. Consumerism is the talking point in the novel that will be discussed in this paper along with the main character in the novel, Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who wants to kill the nexus-6 in order to buy real sheep to impress his neighbours. Consumerism refers to the idea of purchasing goods which is always increasing and it makes people being obsessive about it and feels that their well-being and happiness depends on the obtaining those goods, specially fancy things. In relation, their thoughts are influence by the mass media through the advertisement that. In addition, the meaning of consumerism in the novel is also related to the sense of envy within the community in real life. Normally, self-esteem, prestige, and life style are the internal factors that lead someone to consumerism and competition.
Rick Deckard represents the idea of consumerism that categorize into life standard in the humanity described in the book whereby Rick Deckard is obsessed to consumerism, in this case to buy real animal as by having a real animal is confirming that his social rank is high according to the standard that exists in that society (Dick, 1968, p. 5). In Indonesia, social competition among the people happens. The society is competing to afford luxuries such as branded goods to increase their social ranks. The worst case is about those who are willing to do anything in order to achieve their goals which includes to lift their social status. The writer found that the subject consumerism and social competition is interesting because it reflects to the lifestyle of the people living in the modern society. Rick Deckard and consumerism in the book showing something similar on how society lives nowadays. Additionally, the question is about what is wrong with our society nowadays, Why society should care about the luxurious goods and social competition? . In real life, due to the consumerism, many people are competing to evaluate their social status by buying fancy things. For instance, the latest release of branded bag, clothes, exotic animals, and many more. This shows that people follow the community standard, and using the expenssive goods and exotic animals to confirm their social degree.
As several chapters of the book Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? and Indonesian news provided evidences and facts regarding the topic of this paper, it reveals the correlation between the main character in the story and the lifestyle of the Indonesian community. It leads to hypothesis that people nowadays and society described in the Phillip’s book use luxurious animals and goods to measure their social ranks as they indeed concern about it. Therefore they compete and willing to do anything for it, even families. However, the question is why they should do it? . In the novel, Rick Deckard’s behaviours confirms that he is selfish and greedy for animals with expensive price just to impress his neighbours. Hence, he killed the Nexus-6 androids in order to afford a real animal. It is clearly indicated that Rick Deckard does not care how can he afford his desirable pet, what matter is to buy it as form the social standpoint it has to be done. It means that Rick Deckard indeed attempts to follow the standards in his society.
Over here in Indonesia we can see the same points as written in the Phillip Dick’s book, it is about the consumerism and competition among the people. There is considerable celebrities, socialites and elites who have a desire of owning fancy things and exotic pets (Pasha, 2019) which is similar to Rick Deckard’s wish. This is proven by the news and references provided in the finding session whereby there is a trend and social standard created among them to possess luxurious stuff and pets. For instance, Marion Jola, singer who recognized that she ever bought a branded bag because of her prestige as there is a community standard of owning luxurious things from her surroundings. The other one is a socialite who stole a Luis Vuitton handbag as her surroundings have branded bag as the social standard (Beers, 2020) whereby this example is related to Rick Deckard who became a bounty hunter to buy his desirable pet. Furthermore, the trend of owning an exotic pet within the celebrities and exclusive groups. It can be noted from the YouTube channel of several celebrities. For example, mass media and the YouTube channel that exhibit Irfan Hakim’s exotic pet, Aldabra tortoise, Alshad Ahmad’s Bengal tiger, Raditya Dika’s sphynx cat, and so much more (Pasha, 2019). This asserts the correlation between the concept of consumerism in the book and Indonesian society whereby people’s envy feeling and prestige resulted them to follow the trends and social standards in order to their social ranks even though in fact they do not really need it.
The factors that influencing the society to follow the trends and social standard are varied. The external and internal factors. Social environment and mass media are the external factors as they have influence someone’s way of thinking through advertisement. The impact of the mass media here supports the concept of consumerism as it makes the community happy if they can purchase what everyone else affording and have a sense of envy towards each other. Hence, it leads to competition between the community as if they are not participate in the game, somehow they will be ashamed. Even those who are unable to afford fancy things enforce themselves to buy what the elite groups buying. Followed by internal factors which constitutes by life style, sense of envy, and prestige. Both two factors are the main element in influencing someone’s decision whether to follow the trends and social standard or not. The principal reasons of having branded goods are prestige for most of people, mainly the celebrities and elite groups in Indonesia. Accordingly someone’s prestige relies on the things and services that he/she use, which in further became his/her life style. Using branded stuff makes people become more comfortable and confirms their social rank. In fact, those groups of people will merely feel ashamed if they do not owning branded stuff because they afraid of being judged as a lower class people from their social environment. This shows that those people seek for recognition as they feel they need acceptance from other people to feel good about themselves. The root causes of this are sense of envy, lack of self-esteem and confidence as it is socially constructed, that an individual should follow the community standard so that he or she will not be subject to bullying. As a result of this social phenomenon, it can decrease life-satisfaction and happiness as their happiness is measured by owning luxurious goods and the community might find it difficult to admit themselves and be confident for who they really are. In addition, perhaps it will be hard for them to live in peace as they tend to join the social competition for social acceptance which it could raise anxiety and depression if they fail to reach acceptance from the other.
In conclusion, by all the proven results, I do believe that consumerism and social competition exist in Indonesian society. It is true fancy things and exotic animals are the trends and social standard that are used by the society as a symbol of their social class. The Society indeed follows the trends and standards that are socially constructed as they are envious, prestige, and seek for acceptance from other people to feel good about themselves by impressing the community. It is proven by the findings section from the novel whereby Rick Deckard is jealous of his neighbours who just afforded a real animal. Therefore, he has a desire to afford a real animal just to impress his neighbours by doing anything. Subsequently, Indonesian society mainly the celebrities and elite groups owning branded goods and exotic animals to impress the society even though they do not really need it. . Both findings from novel “Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? ” and the lifestyle of Indonesian society has the same idea of describing the consumerism in the book and real life in Indonesia. The matter here is the human nature of being greedy when they are obsessed with something, taking risk will be their last means to reach it. The author of the book “Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? ” described the reality in this current society in his work. He defines the society who owns several luxurious goods and animals which are not necessarily needed. If this social phenomenon continues to happen in the future, society will be more rely on the fancy things and social acceptance to give them long-lasting happiness and self-satisfaction. 
A science fiction  
novel
 written by Phillip K. Dick with the title Do Androids  
Dream
 of  
Electric
 Sheep has thousands of lessons for its readers. The  
novel
 talks about the human nature. The story underlines several matters that  
people
 may face in their  
life
 which reflects on how human  
lives
 their  
life
 in the future. Starting from  
people’s
 dependency to the technologies, the influence of  
mass
  media
, false religion, consumerism, less empathy, false identity, mind control, and  
many
 more. When I read the  
book
, I noted that  
Deckard
, the  
main
 character in the  
novel
 is living with the  
idea
 of consumerism whereby he has an  
envy
 feeling for the  
other
  people
  who
 can  
afford
  exotic
  animals
. In the  
book
,  
people
  use
 the  
real
  animal
 to greater their  
social
  acceptance
. They  
buy
  fancy
 things  
even though
 they do not  
really
  need
 it. Consumerism is the talking point in the  
novel
 that will  
be discussed
 in this paper along with the  
main
 character in the  
novel
, Rick  
Deckard
, a bounty hunter  
who
 wants to kill the nexus-6 in  
order
 to  
buy
  real
 sheep to  
impress
 his  
neighbours
. Consumerism refers to the  
idea
 of purchasing  
goods
 which is always increasing and it  
makes
  people
 being obsessive about it and  
feels
 that their well-being and  
happiness
 depends on the obtaining those  
goods
,  
specially
  fancy
 things. In relation, their thoughts are influence by the  
mass
  media
 through the advertisement that.  
In addition
, the meaning of consumerism in the  
novel
 is  
also
 related to the  
sense
 of  
envy
 within the  
community
 in  
real
  life
.  
Normally
, self-esteem,  
prestige
, and  
life
 style are the internal  
factors
 that lead  
someone
 to consumerism and competition.
Rick  
Deckard
 represents the  
idea
 of consumerism that categorize into  
life
  standard
 in the humanity  
described
 in the  
book
 whereby Rick  
Deckard
  is obsessed
 to consumerism,  
in this case
 to  
buy
  real
  animal
 as by having a  
real
  animal
 is confirming that his  
social
  rank
 is high according to the  
standard
 that exists in that  
society
 (Dick, 1968, p. 5). In Indonesia,  
social
  competition
 among the  
people
  happens
. The  
society
 is competing to  
afford
 luxuries such as  
branded
  goods
 to increase their  
social
  ranks
. The worst case is about those  
who
 are willing to do anything in  
order
 to achieve their goals which includes to lift their  
social
 status.  
The
 writer found that the subject consumerism and  
social
  competition
 is interesting  
because
 it reflects to the lifestyle of the  
people
 living in the modern  
society
. Rick  
Deckard
 and consumerism in the  
book
 showing something similar on how  
society
  lives
 nowadays.  
Additionally
, the question is about what is  
wrong
 with our  
society
 nowadays, Why  
society
 should care about the  
luxurious
  goods
 and  
social
  competition
?  
.
 In  
real
  life
, due to the consumerism,  
many
  people
 are competing to evaluate their  
social
 status by buying  
fancy
 things.  
For instance
, the latest release of  
branded
 bag, clothes,  
exotic
  animals
, and  
many
 more. This  
shows
 that  
people
  follow
 the  
community
  standard
, and using the  
expenssive
  goods
 and  
exotic
  animals
 to confirm their  
social
 degree.
As several chapters of the  
book
 Do Android  
Dream
 of  
Electric
 Sheep?  
and
 Indonesian news provided evidences and facts regarding the topic of this paper, it reveals the correlation between the  
main
 character in the story and the lifestyle of the Indonesian  
community
. It leads to hypothesis that  
people
 nowadays and  
society
  described
 in the Phillip’s  
book
  use
  luxurious
  animals
 and  
goods
 to measure their  
social
  ranks
 as they  
indeed
 concern about it.  
Therefore
 they compete and willing to do anything for it, even families.  
However
, the question is why they should do it?  
.
 In the  
novel
, Rick  
Deckard
’s  
behaviours
 confirms that he is selfish and greedy for  
animals
 with expensive price  
just
 to  
impress
 his  
neighbours
.  
Hence
, he killed the Nexus-6 androids in  
order
 to  
afford
 a  
real
  animal
. It is  
clearly
 indicated that Rick  
Deckard
 does not care how can he  
afford
 his desirable pet, what matter is to  
buy
 it as form the  
social
 standpoint it  
has to
  be done
. It means that Rick  
Deckard
  indeed
 attempts to  
follow
 the  
standards
 in his society.
Over here in Indonesia we can  
see
 the same points as written in the Phillip Dick’s  
book
, it is about the consumerism and  
competition
 among the  
people
. There is considerable  
celebrities
, socialites and  
elites
  who
 have a desire of  
owning
  fancy
 things and  
exotic
  pets
 (Pasha, 2019) which is similar to Rick  
Deckard
’s wish. This  
is proven
 by the news and references provided in the finding session whereby there is a  
trend
 and  
social
  standard
 created among them to possess  
luxurious
 stuff and  
pets
.  
For instance
, Marion  
Jola
, singer  
who
 recognized that she ever  
bought
 a  
branded
 bag  
because
 of her  
prestige
 as there is a  
community
  standard
 of  
owning
  luxurious
 things from her surroundings. The  
other
 one is a socialite  
who
 stole a Luis Vuitton handbag as her surroundings have  
branded
 bag as the  
social
  standard
 (Beers, 2020) whereby this example  
is related
 to Rick  
Deckard
  who
 became a bounty hunter to  
buy
 his desirable pet.  
Furthermore
, the  
trend
 of  
owning
 an  
exotic
 pet within the  
celebrities
 and exclusive  
groups
. It can  
be noted
 from the YouTube channel of several  
celebrities
.  
For example
,  
mass
  media
 and the YouTube channel that exhibit  
Irfan
  Hakim
’s  
exotic
 pet,  
Aldabra
 tortoise,  
Alshad
 Ahmad’s Bengal tiger,  
Raditya
  Dika
’s  
sphynx
 cat, and  
so
 much more (Pasha, 2019). This asserts the correlation between the concept of consumerism in the  
book
 and Indonesian  
society
 whereby  
people’s
  envy
 feeling and  
prestige
 resulted them to  
follow
 the  
trends
 and  
social
  standards
 in  
order
 to their  
social
  ranks
  even though
 in fact they do not  
really
  need
 it.
The  
factors
 that influencing the  
society
 to  
follow
 the  
trends
 and  
social
  standard
  are varied
. The external and internal  
factors
.  
Social
 environment and  
mass
  media
 are the external  
factors
 as they have influence  
someone’s
 way of thinking through advertisement. The impact of the  
mass
  media
 here supports the concept of consumerism as it  
makes
 the  
community
 happy if they can  
purchase
 what everyone else affording and have a  
sense
 of  
envy
 towards each  
other
.  
Hence
, it leads to  
competition
 between the  
community
 as if they are not  
participate
 in the game, somehow they will  
be ashamed
. Even those  
who
 are unable to  
afford
  fancy
 things enforce themselves to  
buy
 what the  
elite
  groups
 buying. Followed by internal  
factors
 which constitutes by  
life
 style,  
sense
 of  
envy
, and  
prestige
. Both two  
factors
 are the  
main
 element in influencing  
someone’s
 decision whether to  
follow
 the  
trends
 and  
social
  standard
 or not. The principal reasons of having  
branded
  goods
 are  
prestige
 for most of  
people
,  
mainly
 the  
celebrities
 and  
elite
  groups
 in Indonesia.  
Accordingly
  someone’s
  prestige
 relies on the things and services that he/she  
use
, which in  
further
 became his/her  
life
 style. Using  
branded
 stuff  
makes
  people
 become more comfortable and confirms their  
social
  rank
. In fact, those  
groups
 of  
people
 will  
merely
  feel
 ashamed if they do not  
owning
  branded
 stuff  
because
  they afraid
 of  
being judged
 as a lower  
class
  people
 from their  
social
 environment. This  
shows
 that those  
people
 seek for recognition as they  
feel
 they  
need
  acceptance
 from  
other
  people
 to  
feel
  good
 about themselves. The root causes of this are  
sense
 of  
envy
, lack of self-esteem and confidence as it is  
socially
 constructed, that an individual should  
follow
 the  
community
  standard
  so
 that he or she will not be subject to bullying.  
As a result
 of this  
social
 phenomenon, it can decrease life-satisfaction and  
happiness
 as their  
happiness
  is measured
 by  
owning
  luxurious
  goods
 and the  
community
 might find it difficult to admit themselves and be confident for  
who
 they  
really
 are.  
In addition
, perhaps it will be  
hard
 for them to  
live
 in peace as they tend to  
join
 the  
social
  competition
 for  
social
  acceptance
 which it could raise anxiety and depression if they fail to reach  
acceptance
 from the other. 
In conclusion
, by all the proven results, I do believe that consumerism and  
social
  competition
 exist in Indonesian  
society
. It is true  
fancy
 things and  
exotic
  animals
 are the  
trends
 and  
social
  standard
 that are  
used
 by the  
society
 as a symbol of their  
social
  class
. The  
Society
  indeed
  follows
 the  
trends
 and  
standards
 that are  
socially
 constructed as they are envious,  
prestige
, and seek for  
acceptance
 from  
other
  people
 to  
feel
  good
 about themselves by impressing the  
community
. It  
is proven
 by the findings section from the  
novel
 whereby Rick  
Deckard
 is jealous of his  
neighbours
  who
  just
 afforded a  
real
  animal
.  
Therefore
, he has a desire to  
afford
 a  
real
  animal
  just
 to  
impress
 his  
neighbours
 by doing anything.  
Subsequently
, Indonesian  
society
  mainly
 the  
celebrities
 and  
elite
  groups
  owning
  branded
  goods
 and  
exotic
  animals
 to  
impress
 the  
society
  even though
 they do not  
really
  need
 it.  
.
 Both findings from  
novel
 “Do Android  
Dream
 of  
Electric
 Sheep? ” and the lifestyle of Indonesian  
society
 has the same  
idea
 of describing the consumerism in the  
book
 and  
real
  life
 in Indonesia. The matter here is the human nature of being greedy when they  
are obsessed
 with something, taking  
risk
 will be their last means to reach it. The author of the  
book
 “Do Android  
Dream
 of  
Electric
 Sheep? ”  
described
 the reality in this  
current
  society
 in his work. He defines the  
society
  who
  owns
 several  
luxurious
  goods
 and  
animals
 which are not  
necessarily
 needed. If this  
social
 phenomenon continues to happen in the future,  
society
 will be more rely on the  
fancy
 things and  
social
  acceptance
 to give them long-lasting  
happiness
 and self-satisfaction.